Ecclesiastes 7:1–9:18

Some Benefits of Serious Thinking

7It is better to have respect than good perfume.

The day of death is better than the day of birth.

²It is better to go to a funeral

than to a party.

We all must die,

and everyone living should think about this.

³Sorrow is better than laughter,

and sadness has a good influence on you.

⁴A wise person thinks about death,

but a fool thinks only about having a good time.

⁵It is better to be criticized by a wise person

than to be praised by a fool.

⁶The laughter of fools

is like the crackling of thorns in a cooking fire.

Both are useless.

⁷Even wise people are fools

if they let money change their thinking.

⁸It is better to finish something

than to start it.

It is better to be patient

than to be proud.

⁹Don’t become angry quickly,

because getting angry is foolish.

¹⁰Don’t ask, “Why was life better in the ‘good old days’?”

It is not wise to ask such questions.

¹¹Wisdom is better when it comes with money.

They both help those who are alive.

¹²Wisdom is like money:

they both help.

But wisdom is better,

because it can save whoever has it.

¹³Look at what God has done:

No one can straighten what he has bent.

¹⁴When life is good, enjoy it.

But when life is hard, remember:

God gives good times and hard times,

and no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

It Is Impossible to Be Truly Good

¹⁵In my useless life I have seen both of these:

I have seen good people die in spite of their goodness

and evil people live a long time in spite of their evil.

¹⁶Don’t be too right,

and don’t be too wise.

Why destroy yourself?

¹⁷Don’t be too wicked,

and don’t be foolish.

Why die before your time?

¹⁸It is good to grab the one and not let go of the other;

those who honor God will hold them both.

¹⁹Wisdom makes a person stronger

than ten leaders in a city.

²⁰Surely there is not a good person on earth

who always does good and never sins.

²¹Don’t listen to everything people say,

or you might hear your servant insulting you.

²²You know that many times

you have insulted others.

²³I used wisdom to test all these things.

I wanted to be wise,

but it was too hard for me.

²⁴I cannot understand why things are as they are.

It is too hard for anyone to understand.

²⁵I studied and tried very hard to find wisdom,

to find some meaning for everything.

I learned that it is foolish to be evil,

and it is crazy to act like a fool.

²⁶I found that some women are worse than death

and are as dangerous as traps.

Their love is like a net,

and their arms hold men like chains.

A man who pleases God will be saved from them,

but a sinner will be caught by them.

²⁷The Teacher says, “This is what I learned:

I added all these things together

to find some meaning for everything.

²⁸While I was searching,

I did not find one man among the thousands I found.

Nor did I find a woman among all these.

²⁹One thing I have learned:

God made people good,

but they have found all kinds of ways to be bad.”

Obey the King

8No one is like the wise person

who can understand what things mean.

Wisdom brings happiness;

it makes sad faces happy.

²Obey the king’s command, because you made a promise to God. ³Don’t be too quick to leave the king. Don’t support something that is wrong, because the king does whatever he pleases. ⁴What the king says is law; no one tells him what to do.

⁵Whoever obeys the king’s command will be safe.

A wise person does the right thing at the right time.

⁶There is a right time and a right way for everything,

yet people often have many troubles.

⁷They do not know what the future holds,

and no one can tell them what will happen.

⁸No one can control the wind

or stop his own death.

No soldier is released in times of war,

and evil does not set free those who do evil.

Justice, Rewards, and Punishment

⁹I saw all of this as I considered all that is done here on earth. Sometimes people harm those they control. ¹⁰I saw the funerals of evil people who used to go in and out of the holy place. They were honored in the same towns where they had done evil. This is useless, too.

¹¹When evil people are not punished right away, it makes others want to do evil, too. ¹²Though a sinner might do a hundred evil things and might live a long time, I know it will be better for those who honor God. ¹³I also know it will not go well for evil people, because they do not honor God. Like a shadow, they will not last. ¹⁴Sometimes something useless happens on earth. Bad things happen to good people, and good things happen to bad people. I say that this is also useless. ¹⁵So I decided it was more important to enjoy life. The best that people can do here on earth is to eat, drink, and enjoy life, because these joys will help them do the hard work God gives them here on earth.

We Cannot Understand All God Does

¹⁶I tried to understand all that happens on earth. I saw how busy people are, working day and night and hardly ever sleeping. ¹⁷I also saw all that God has done. Nobody can understand what God does here on earth. No matter how hard people try to understand it, they cannot. Even if wise people say they understand, they cannot; no one can really understand it.

Is Death Fair?

9I thought about all this and tried to understand it. I saw that God controls good people and wise people and what they do, but no one knows if they will experience love or hate.

²Good and bad people end up the same—

those who are right and those who are wrong,

those who are good and those who are evil,

those who are clean and those who are unclean,

those who sacrifice and those who do not.

The same things happen to a good person

as happen to a sinner,

to a person who makes promises to God

and to one who does not.

³This is something wrong that happens here on earth: What happens to one happens to all. So people’s minds are full of evil and foolish thoughts while they live. After that, they join the dead. ⁴But anyone still alive has hope; even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

⁵The living know they will die,

but the dead know nothing.

Dead people have no more reward,

and people forget them.

⁶After people are dead,

they can no longer love or hate or envy.

They will never again share

in what happens here on earth.

Enjoy Life While You Can

⁷So go eat your food and enjoy it;

drink your wine and be happy,

because that is what God wants you to do.

⁸Put on nice clothes

and make yourself look good.

⁹Enjoy life with the wife you love. Enjoy all the useless days of this useless life God has given you here on earth, because it is all you have. So enjoy the work you do here on earth. ¹⁰Whatever work you do, do your best, because you are going to the grave, where there is no working, no planning, no knowledge, and no wisdom.

Time and Chance

¹¹I also saw something else here on earth:

The fastest runner does not always win the race,

the strongest soldier does not always win the battle,

the wisest does not always have food,

the smartest does not always become wealthy,

and the talented one does not always receive praise.

Time and chance happen to everyone.

¹²No one knows what will happen next.

Like a fish caught in a net,

or a bird caught in a trap,

people are trapped by evil

when it suddenly falls on them.

Wisdom Does Not Always Win

¹³I also saw something wise here on earth that impressed me. ¹⁴There was a small town with only a few people in it. A great king fought against it and put his armies all around it. ¹⁵Now there was a poor but wise man in the town who used his wisdom to save his town. But later on, everyone forgot about him. ¹⁶I still think wisdom is better than strength. But those people forgot about the poor man’s wisdom and stopped listening to what he said.

¹⁷The quiet words of a wise person are better

than the shouts of a foolish ruler.

¹⁸Wisdom is better than weapons of war,

but one sinner can destroy much good.